Watch a new video from the musician, performer, and self-described ‘obnoxiously loud xicanx cabronx’
San Cha told us about her music, a take on traditional Mexican styles sung in Spanish and English, earlier this year in a photo series highlighting Los Angeles’s Latinx underground creative community. She describes the music, quite simply, as ‘Latin’, telling us: “What label do I need other than (the one) I was born into?”
San Cha’s debut EP, Capricho Del Diablo, came out back in June, and now one of its tracks, “Me Demandó”, has been reworked for an acoustic version, appearing in a visual that’s part way between a music video, short film, and documentary.
“The song is about how someone can go from being your biggest fan and supporter to your debt collector,” San Cha explains. “This song inspired the entire album as far as subject matter and music. The album explores the power dynamics of a failed relationship, which is also the same relationship I have with this country. Many of us first generation children are sold on the American Dream only to end up with debts that enslave us for life.”
The video was directed by Jazmin Garcia and filmed in Mexico City. “Jazmin is an artist whose work I had been admiring for a while, so the collaboration felt long overdue,” San Cha says. “I felt very comfortable following her lead as she’s one of the few people that fully understands all the references I channel in my music, from Rancheras to Boleros to Selena. Jazmin actualises these images and tells my story in ways that are gorgeous and effortless.”
The video and audio was filmed and recorded in a day, shooting around an apartment complex in the city’s Centro Histórico. It was styled by shoe designer @f_and_m and artist Juan Manuel Gudiño, and uses some pieces from LA designer OLIMA and borrowed a piece from Mexican designer Roberto Sanchez.
“The story told in this short film encapsulates the different facets of my work so perfectly,” says San Cha. “You can see me here as a performer and a singer-songwriter who navigates through this world and the music industry as a queer chubby obnoxiously loud xicanx cabronx who remains hiding half of herself from her Rural Mexican Catholic birth family.”
Watch the video below.